Perceptions

State Health Department

My High School and Middle School

My Hometown

The Media

Final Thoughts

Data

Links

On the first day of class, we were asked to respond to questions about our perceptions of AIDS in our community. For the first question, “How many cumulative cases since 1983 have there been in Santa Clara County?” I was close to the right answer, guessing 3700 cumulative cases since 1980 in Santa Clara County, as opposed to the actual number of 3000, but I still slightly overestimated my answers, because I overestimated the total population of the county to begin with.

 For the second question, “What percentage of the cumulative AIDS cases in Santa Clara County is female?” I guessed 30% when the actual number is 9%. I knew that the majority of those with AIDS in US are male, but I was thinking more about the national and more recent data, where in 2004, 26% of newly diagnosed HIV cases were among women.[1]

Santa Clara County has a large homosexual population because it is not a feared or shunned lifestyle in our area, being so close to San Francisco. For the third question, “What % of the cumulative AIDS cases in Santa Clara County was due to heterosexual transmission?” I guessed 40%, but the correct answer was 8%. I believed the homosexual population in Santa Clara County to be lower than it was, mainly because I was simply unaware that our gay population was drastically different than the rest of the countries’. I didn’t realize that I lived in an area that was more open and accepting of different lifestyles, so I underestimated the number of gays in my area. In Santa Clara County, the main risk factor in 75% of cases was men having sex with men, and in another 8% of cases, the main risk factor was men who have sex with men and who inject drugs. By contrast, in the United States as a whole, the main risk factor in 46% of cases was men having sex with men and the main risk factor in7% of cases was men having sex with men and injecting drugs.[2]